Aerial view of the eastern border of the Parque Nacional Soberania in central Panama following a fire.

An aerial view of the eastern border of the Parque Nacional Soberania in central Panama following a fire. The park borders on an extensive monoculture of the invasive grass Saccharum spontaneum. The fire was severe enough to kill small remnant patches of trees that remained in the monoculture, but not severe enough to enter the contiguous forest of the national park. Experimental plantings of native trees also escaped the fire and are visible in the upper right of the photograph. This photograph originally appeared on the cover of Ecological Applications (17:5) in July of 2007.